German army must become defender of Europe, says Olaf Scholz

The Germany army has spent too long drilling wells and stemming floods, Olaf Scholz said on Friday, as he promised to turn his military into "the best equipped" on the continent.

Speaking at an army conference, the German chancellor admitted that his country had lived in an illusion that it was surrounded only by friends, with harmful consequences for its armed forces.

Mr Scholz, 64, said: "For a long time, our country avoided a true prioritisation of the tasks of its army."

He said that, while the country was grateful to soldiers for drilling wells, stemming floods and helping with Covid vaccinations, "that is not their core mission".

He added: "The army's core mission is to defend freedom in Europe," saying that it was his objective to turn the German military into "the central pillar" of European conventional defences and make it "the best equipped force" on the continent.

Days after the Russian invasion began in February, Mr Scholz announced a "new era" in German defence spending, pledging a special €100 billion fund to modernise the underfunded forces, plus increasing defence spending to two per cent of GDP.

The announcement was well received at the time. However, it later became clear that the special fund would not come in addition to the two per cent sending, but would itself help Germany reach that target.

In recent years, German soldiers have complained that they have been sent on exercise with broom sticks instead of guns and that they have not been given basic gear like a change of underwear or thick winter jackets.

At £43 billion, the German military budget is the highest in the EU in gross terms, but trails behind others when seen as a percentage of GDP.

Mr Scholz's speech disappointed those who had been expecting him to make a new announcement on weapons deliveries to Ukraine.

Pressure had been growing within his centrist coalition for him to announce the supply of battle tanks, but Mr Scholz said that his government was not considering "organising big further arms deliveries".

Next week, the opposition CDU plans to force a vote in the Bundestag on whether Germany should supply tanks from its own depots to help the Ukrainian army, Der Spiegel reported on Friday.

A similar plan by the CDU to push the government into action through a Bundestag vote in April led Mr Scholz to announce that Berlin would supply Geopard anti-aircraft tanks to Kyiv.